Time for another post of images that make me want to write. Some of these pictures convey a mood, some inspire another world, and some just get my mind itching to tell a story. I hope they do the same for you.

I’ve written a lot of books. Most of them are in no way ready to be seen by the general public, and some may never be. Once again, I’m faced with the idea of quitting my new book about 35k in. It’s an awful feeling, but sometimes it just has to be done. So here…ead More

Now I know some people might insist on there being complete silence when they write, but that’s never been me. I need music, I need it to write to and I need it to think. Nothing helps me get over writer’s block more than a few good songs and a long walk. So here are…ead More

As part of The Next Big Thing Blog Hop, I was tagged by James C. Femmerin his post last week.

The purpose of this hop is to introduce readers to writers and works that might be unfamiliar. This includes new releases or Works in Progress (WIP). This is week 27 of the hop.

According to the rules of the hop, I will be answering the same questions as every other blogger on the hop about either my newest release or my WIP and then at the bottom of the post I’ve tagged Sara Drum who will do the same thing in her blog next Wednesday, January 2nd. That is unless she gets caught in a snow storm like me at it gets delayed!

What is the working title of your book?

Darkness of Morning, it’s the latest release in the Guardian of Morning series. The series follows two girls, Kara and Dylan, as they find out there is much more to their relationship than they ever realized. Equal parts dark fantasy and romance, it explores the intense relationship between the girls set against a fantasy landscape where every choice has far-reaching consequences.

What genre does your book fall under?

YA fantasy. It’s more urban fantasy than swords and sorcery though, even though it takes place in another world.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

In a perfect world? Alexz Johnson would be Kara and Mandy Musgrave would be Dylan. Honestly, they are both probably getting too old for the teenage roles at this point, but they are who I have in my mind when I’m working on the books.

Alexz Johnson

Mandy Musgrave

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Finding herself back in Inbetween, Kara must again fight to save the girl she loves.

What is the longer synopsis of your book?

Picking up shortly after the events in Morning Rising, Darkness of Morning finds Kara and Dylan drawn back into the world of Inbetween in hopes of stopping Alster and the new King. Though they believe Alster is planning an assault on the Daylands, bringing Dylan over to his side is his true goal. As the girls and their friends plot to bring down Alster, Dylan’s moods shift dangerously testing both her relationship with Kara and her commitment to saving the Daylands.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-published. While I’d love to get these books out to a wider audience, self-publishing just worked out better for me. Though both small and large publishers are coming around to the idea of more LGBT fiction, it’s still a tough sell.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Actually the first draft of this one only took two weeks. The project started as a single book written over a week when I found out a close friend was in rehab. It had a very happy ending originally, but as that friend went in and out of rehab, the project grew into three books.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

A friend entering rehab. She was dealing with some pretty severe addiction problems and it was horrible to see. These books were my way of dealing with the emotions I was feeling. I could make everything be okay in this story.

What else might pique the reader’s interest?

Lesbian main characters in a fantasy world! Seriously, this was all I wanted as a teen.

Continuing the Blog Hop next week, Sara Drum, author of Caged in Myth and more!

I love anything that makes me want to write, and these are some more of my favorite images. One of which was actually the inspiration for a short story I recently sold. So this is another love letter of beautiful, strange, and sometimes normal images that spark something creative in me.

Anyone care to chime in on this book cover? It will be for the second in the Guardian of Morning series. I was going for something with a little bit more moodiness to it. The complaints I heard about the first book was that it didn’t give much feel for the story aside from the lesbian main characters. Below is the cover of the first book, so you can see how vastly different they are. So should I go with this new one or stick with the style of the first one? Thanks!

Happy sample Sunday everyone! Enjoy the beginning of my new novella, Voodoo, available now on the Kindle. http://amzn.to/S14vH2

1.

The car was flipping. I felt like the whole thing was in slow motion. I saw the world right side up, and then it seemed to slowly turn until it was upside down. That happened three times. Under all the fear I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to the other car. In the background I could hear a girl screaming, but I wasn’t sure if it was me or my sister.

Finally, with the world upside down, we came to a stop. Glass rained down around me, sparkling on the roof of the car below my head. I was hanging by my seat belt, dazed and disoriented, hair in my face. My body still felt like we were flipping, my head still throbbed in pain. I put my hand up to it and it came back wet with warm blood. I stared at my fingers, unable to comprehend that it was my blood. Seeing the blood made it all real and panic raged to life.

I glanced at Claire in the driver’s seat, only she wasn’t there. Her seat belt had failed at some point, and she lay sprawled across the ceiling in a bed of broken glass and scattered CDs. Her hair was matted with blood on one side.

That got my mind going. Fumbling with my seat belt, my fingers found the release button. I dropped with no grace to the ceiling. I landed face first, and the world went dark.

I opened my eyes. I knew time had passed, but I had no idea how long. I hoped it had only been minutes. It couldn’t have been much longer; someone would have come to help us if it was longer. I lifted my head. When I tried to push myself up to crawl, nausea washed over me. I made it a couple inches toward Claire before I collapsed into darkness again.

“We got two here,” someone yelled. My eyes fluttered open to see a black man in a paramedic’s jacket looking in the other side of the car. A moment of confusion filled me. Where was I? “Neither of them appears to be conscious,” he added. I would have corrected him if I hadn’t passed back out.

Next I was in an ambulance. Now a woman with hair as blond as my own was holding a large plastic bubble over my mouth, slowly squeezing. She smiled when she saw my eyes open; she had a nice smile. I saw her turn to say something, but I didn’t hear it.

Then lights were flashing by overhead. They were bright fluorescent ones that reminded me of school. I heard strangers speaking over me.

“We got these two, and another two from the other car.”

“Do we have ID on them?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” answered the first voice. “This one’s Alyssa Jacobs. That one is her sister, Claire. The other two . . .” I faded out of consciousness before I heard anything else.

I saw the operating room in jumps and flashes. Bright lights pointed down at me, while men dressed in surgical masks leaned over me. They cut away my shirt, and I felt oddly embarrassed. I welcomed the haze of sleep when it came again, though this time I knew it was artificial, their drugs pumping through me.

Then the world started to get strange.

I was standing on a city street, people walking past me without noticing. I spun in a circle, stumbling in my heels and almost falling. All the women wore pretty calf length dresses while the men were in suits, many with hats on. I looked down to see I was wearing the same sort of dress, black and white striped at the top with a black skirt. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever owned. Pain burned in my temples. I gripped my head, shoving my fingers through blond hair and willing myself not to scream as I teetered sideways. My eyes shut.

The street flickered back into focus, old and cobbled instead of smooth and new. I lay at the edge of the street, just on the sidewalk with my hand on the cobblestones. Bright light filled my vision; I was looking up at the fluorescent lights again. From the corner of my eye I could see mom and dad talking with a doctor.

Then I was on the street again. A woman ran by, long red hair seeming to float behind her. When she looked my way before crossing the street I saw it was Claire. Her smooth pale skin almost glowed. I’d never seen her looking so radiant. Relief flooded me; the doctors had no idea what they were talking about, she was fine. I tried to call out to her, but my voice was little more than a croak. I felt the hospital room tugging at me as I closed my eyes. I forced them open again, digging my fingers into the space between the stones of the street and clinging to it. If Claire was here, I wasn’t leaving without her.